Don’t act so surprised. We all knew this was coming. During an appearance on Sirius XM’s MLB Network Radio this afternoon, Rob Dibble essentially called out Stephen Strasburg for being a wimp.

I didn’t hear it as it happened, but Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post was nice enough to transcribe it all for us. I recommend you read the whole thing for the full context of Dibble’s remarks, but here’s just a taste.

“Ok, you throw a pitch, it bothers your arm, and you immediately call out the manager and the trainer? Suck it up, kid. This is your profession. You chose to be a baseball player. You can’t have the cavalry come in and save your butt every time you feel a little stiff shoulder, sore elbow.”

He continued:

“What Mike Rizzo and Jim Riggleman do, that’s totally different,” Dibble said. “They have to think of the long-term ramifications of what they’re doing right now with this kid’s career. As far as this kid? Stop crying, go out there and pitch. Period.”

“This is the major leagues. This is not college any more. You’re not on scholarship. You’re being paid to do the job and guys depend on you, and I think it’s unfortunate that the Nationals and the team are in a situation here where this kid now, he feels any kind of arm pain, he’s gonna call you out? That’s scary to me.”

“You give these guys $15 million bucks, please,” he said. “Get your butt out there and play every fifth day.”

Yes, this from a guy, who as Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post points out, never threw more than 99 innings in a season. Between the minors and majors this season, Strasburg has thrown 123 innings.

The funny part about this whole thing is that I’m watching the MASN broadcast of the Nats-Cubs game right now and Dibble hasn’t said one harsh word in regards to Strasburg. Of course, he was already on thin ice for the knuckle-dragging comments he recently made about some women “talking” behind home plate, so his restraint is almost certainly calculated.

Frankly, I couldn’t be any happier that he continues to put his foot in his mouth, whether on MASN or Sirius XM. Living in the D.C. area, I’m forced to watch him anytime I want to watch a Nationals game. Call me an eternal optimist, but hopefully a few more moronic comments will eventually put him out of a job. At this rate, he’s probably due by the ninth inning tonight.

The Cardinals have always emphasized building from within. In the 2016-17 offseason, however, they may end up being one of the bigger free agent buyers. At least according to some informed speculation.

The Cardinals are already losing their first round pick due to the Fowler signing, so any other top free agent won’t cost them more than the money he’s owed. And as far as money goes, the Cardinals have a great deal of it, despite being a small market team. They have a billion dollar TV deal coming online and Matt Holliday and Jaime Garcia are off the payroll now. Spending big on a free agent or three would not cripple them or anything.

Encarnacion or Trumbo would be first baseman, which wold fly in the face of the Cards’ move of Matt Carpenter to first base (and, at least as far as Encarnacion goes, would fly in the face of good defense). Getting either of them would push Carpenter back to second, displacing Kolten Wong, or over to third, displacing Jhonny Peralta. If you’re going to do that, I’d say that Turner would make more sense, but what do I know?

Either way, the Cardinals may be entering a pretty interesting phase of their offseason now. And an unfamiliar one as, quite possibly, the top free agent buyer on the market.

There is literally nothing you could tell me that the incoming administration is considering which would shock me anymore. As such, I saw this story when I woke up this morning, blinked once, took a sip of coffee, closed the browser window and just went on with my morning, as desensitized as a wisdom tooth about to be yanked.

Rob Bradford of WEEI.com reports that Former Red Sox, Mets and Rangers manager Bobby Valentine is on a short-list of candidates for the job of United States Ambassador to Japan:

The 66-year-old, who currently serves as Sacred Heart University’s athletics director, has engaged in preliminary discussions with President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team regarding the position.

Valentine managed the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan’s Pacific League for six seasons, leading the team to a championship in 2005. He also knows the current prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, as both went to USC. Assuming championship teams meet the country’s leader in Japan like they do in the United States, Valentine has at least twice the amount of experience with top political leaders than does, say, Ned Yost, so that’s something.

The former manager, more importantly, is friends with Donald Trump’s brother, with the two of them going way back. Which, given how this transition is going, seems like a far more important set of qualifications than anything else on this list.